A Fresh Perspective

Even though it feels that all I do lately is fret, I am closing in on a finish with my current hand quilting project. Time to pin another quilt top. I do like to stay one step ahead and quilting/color/fabric feels good. It's not like I have the brain power to concentrate on design decisions and such right now anyway. The fire is probably not any closer, but ash is falling everywhere, smoke is choking us and our view is obscured. Fires are {or have been} burning on practically every side of us. I can't even think straight.

Getting ready to pin my Scrap Basket/Rolling Stones quilt

My daughter helped me to move the dining room table out of the way and then because I was already in the mode, it was easy to pin two quilt tops. Might as well. The Scrap Basket/Rolling Stones quilt top is one of my absolute favorites because of the different fabrics and colors involved--that red number fabric for the basket background and mixed light green sashing especially.

Every now and then I make a quilt top that just seems to stand out to me as special in several ways. I'm also extremely fond of the large basket that was pieced {on a whim} with a quickly drawn template, then sewn from little bits in the scrap bin. It was actually the impetuous behind the entire quilt and I cannot believe how 'me' this quilt turned out to be. It's been needing to get in the hoop for a good long while now because it just makes me happy.

A closer look...

The quilt top below is one that I intend to do some machine quilting on--stitch in the ditch etc. After I get all that out of the way, then I will come back and hand quilt some spirals in the pinwheel blocks? I'm still contemplating ideas, but that is my tentative plan.

Mom's Color Challenge Quilt

This quilt is a Kathy Doughty pattern from the Material Obsession 2 book, but our late quilting group made it as a mystery quilt. According to the guidelines set up for us, we gathered or bought our fabric according to warms and cool, then subgroups of types of prints. I can't remember exactly now, but it seems that we had print groups of dots, plaids & stripes, geometrics, medallions, paisleys and also florals. We were supposed to pay attention to print size and try to gather a mixed selection of small, medium and large prints. It was a very interesting approach and we spent quite a lot of time playing with our fabric groupings before committing to the start of the quilt. I didn't mind selecting fabrics according to print type before knowing the specific pattern, but others found it an extremely difficult process.

A closer look...

What I balked at was using a solid white background and then trying to gather engaging {to me} fabrics to go along with it. True white feels so stark and foreign to me that I can't seem to bond properly with it. I could have used solid black {the only other option available to us} but for some reason I went ahead and decided to stretch myself a bit with the white. Good call as it's easy to get complacent within our own comfort zone and start to get stagnant. Using the white made me question some of the fabrics I was instinctively drawn to--made me wonder if they would be a bold enough choice if placed next to a solid. I've always tried to have a well balanced mix of prints in each of the quilts that I make, but making a quilt in this specific manner really helped bring attention to individual choices made color by color. It definitely solidified how truly important the details can be, reinforcing a thoughtful but hopefully, instinctive process. Hindsight makes it very clear that this quilt top has been key in how I got to where I am now in terms of choosing fabric prints for all my quilt projects.

Having said that, this quilt is not something I'm very excited about. As a whole, it doesn't feel completely like a 'me' quilt. It doesn't dazzle me, melt my heart or make me feel especially happy. Not that I'm embarrassed or ashamed of it! It just is. So.... coming back now and looking at it with fresh eyes allows me the perspective of seeing the little, tiny bit of myself that I managed to instill into the quilt--regardless of how limiting I felt the perimeters to be. That's kind of interesting because I really couldn't see it before. And it's in the finish-it-up queue now because I fully intend to be giving it away soon. Don't you think it needs to go live with someone who will more fully appreciate it? Ha  Lets see if it survives round two of August fire season first....